Romanian Road Authority, a referee booed by the crowd

The intention of the Romanian Road Authority (ARR, in Romanian) to change the rules for organizing and carrying out road transport and its related activities, approved through OMTCT 1892/2006, sparked a lively debate between carriers and the spedition companies. The core problem – constraining the spedition companies to operate under new rules designed to prevent payment incidents so often blamed by the carriers.

ARR proposed in late August the amendment of OMTCT 1892/2006 which covers, among others, the licensing conditions related to transport activities, including intermediating public road transport operations (the delivery side). The ARR’s proposals address two major changes in licensing arrangements for the mediation business public road transport operations:

* Letter of bank guarantee of 30.000 euros or 50.000 euros (depending on domestic or international traffic) which today can be replaced with a liability insurance on these sums, will become mandatory and will cost 50.000 euros;

* The concept of grave misconduct in the intermediates’ work will absorb exceeded 30 days time for payment by road transport operators.

These proposals have sparked vehement reactions from the spedition houses, especially in the light requiring the letter of guarantee.